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The Transplants (from left - Tim Armstrong and Travis Barker) perform during the Vans Warped Tour at Cal. St. Long Beach in 2005. The Vans Warped Tour is a place where big names and up and comers perform.

Bob Provost was 22 when he started worked part time at Vans in 1979. Today, he's the director of trade shows for the company.

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Bunny Caminiti, whose family ran a shoe business back home in Jamaica, started at Vans in 1980 at age 15. She stands in front of the Vans brand anthem at the Vans' Cypress headquarters.

Artwork done by the sales staff hangs on the walls at Vans' Cypress headquarters.

Artwork done by the sales staff hangs on the walls at Vans' Cypress headquarters.

Artwork done by the sales staff hangs on the walls at Vans' Cypress headquarters

Artwork done by the sales staff hangs on the walls at Vans' Cypress headquarters

Vans stickers and trinkets found in a shoe-shaped coffee table at the Cypress headquarters.

Artwork done by the sales staff hangs on the walls at Vans' Cypress headquarters

Artwork done by the sales staff hangs on the walls at Vans' Cypress headquarters

Artwork done by the sales staff hangs on the walls at Vans' Cypress headquarters

Artwork done by the sales staff hangs on the walls at Vans' Cypress headquarters

A big photo greets workers at the Vans headquarters in Cypress.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High helped put Vans on the map with their checkerboard slip ons, which Sean Penn wore in the movie.

Steve Van Doren, vice president of events and promotions poses for a photo near his namesake Vans logo in 2014 before the opening of Vans Off The Wall Skatepark in Huntington Beach.

Vans North America General Manager Doug Palladini in his office.

Steve Van Doren, son of founder Paul, shows off footwear with artwork of him.

Steve Van Doren, whose father had co-founded the Vans company, shows off shoes he designed from his office at Vans' Cypress headquarters. Van Doren is the vice president of events and promotions.

Steve Van Doren, whose father had co-founded the Vans company, shows off the 50th anniversary shoe for employees in his office at Vans' Cypress headquarters. Van Doren is the vice president of events and promotions.

Steve Van Doren, whose father had co-founded the Vans company, shows off shoes he designed from his office at Vans' Cypress headquarters. Van Doren is the vice president of events and promotions.

Steve Van Doren, whose father had co-founded the Vans company, talks about the early days of the company in his office at Vans' Cypress headquarters. Van Doren is the vice president of events and promotions.

Steve Van Doren, whose father had co-founded the Vans company, shows off show off some of the memorabilia hanging in his office at Vans' Cypress headquarters. Van Doren is the vice president of events and promotions.

Some of the memorabilia hanging in the office of Steve Van Doren, whose father had co-founded the Vans company, at Vans' Cypress headquarters.

Vintage Vans shoes at Vans' Cypress headquarters. The “Off the Wall” logo was put on all the skate shoes in the 70s, a term skaters used when they went above the lip while skating in a pool.

Vintage Vans shoes at Vans' Cypress headquarters. The stripe on the side is called the “Jazz Stripe.”

Skaters adopted the thick-soled, rugged canvas shoes for their rubbery grip. Actor Sean Pennfamously wore a pair of checkerboard slip-ons in the movie “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” A kid in Riverside last month donned a white pair in a 30-second video and the viral world swooned.

Vans, born in Anaheim 50 years ago, started out as a small manufacturing company whose founders had an unconventional idea to dabble in the retail world. In the ensuing years, the company has ballooned into a multibillion-dollar action-sports brand recognized around the world.

But it wasn’t a smooth ride to success.

Like the gritty skaters who first made the footwear cool, Vans learned there would be some bumps, bruises and crashes as they leaped high and pushed a subculture into the mainstream.

Taking a gamble

Paul Van Doren knew the money wasn’t in manufacturing shoes. If he wanted a successful business, he’d have to go into retail to sell his product directly to customers.

Van Doren, who had experience in the shoe business while working in Boston, opened up the Van Doren Rubber Co. with his brother, Jim Van Doren, and friend Gordon Lee. The doors opened on March 16, 1966 at 704 East Broadway in Anaheim.

A sign outside read “House of Vans.”

They had styles on the racks, organized in color-coded shoe boxes. Men’s sold for $4.49, women’s for $2.29.

There was one problem: They forgot to put money in their cash register.

As customers showed up throughout the day, Paul told them to pick out their style, then come back with the cash when they picked up the shoes.

“My dad has a lot of faith in people,” said Paul’s son, Steve Van Doren, who works at the Cypress headquarters with the title “Ambassador of Fun.”

Lines soon spilled out the shop’s door, so the founders decided to open more locations. The first stand-alone retail shop popped up in Costa Mesa off Newport Boulevard. The Van Dorens and Lee also would fill up their trucks with shoes and hit the swap meets on weekends. Paul Van Doren would scout new stores to open.

Six of the first 10 stores weren’t profitable. When advised by his accountantto shut them down, Paul gambled and did the opposite: He opened more stores. The way he figured, the more shoes he made, the cost to make them would go down, and he’d bank on the successful stores, explained Steve.

The first decade, the company simply tried to stay afloat. Then, the skaters showed up.

Off the Wall

There’s a saying in the skater world: “Did you see that guy get off the wall?”

Vans adopted the phrase, stamping it into the heels of each shoe.

In the mid-70s word got out about the shoe with extra grip, a thick sole and tough canvas that could handle a battering as skateboarders launched off pool lips and did tricks on their wooden boards. Skaters like Stacy Peralta and Tony Alva – who were laying the foundation for what skateboarding is today – became team riderssponsored by Vans.

Nike had its swoosh. Adidas had its logo. Vans had to come up with its own unique design, so the shoe got what’s called a “jazz stripe” on the side to make them stand out.

Years later, kids started drawing checkerboard designs on the rubber part of their Vans. The company took note and created its own checkerboard slip-on.

A young, up-and-coming actor named Sean Penn – who grew up surfing and skating around Santa Monica – told movie producers he needed to wear the shoes in the Fast Times movie. In the 1982 film, the perpetually stoned character Jeff Spicoli slaps his head with the slip-on and declares, “I’m so wasted!”

The movie’s soundtrack would carry the Vans shoes on its cover.

Checkered slip-ons soon were flying off the shelves. Business at Vans instantly doubled, and revenue grew to $45 million from $20 million the previous year.

But it turns out, that boom wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

Growing pains

With all the money coming in, Vans quickly churned out a shoe for everything you could think of: A break-dancing shoe. A running shoe. A basketball shoe. Even a skydiving shoe.

Vans’ fast times soon came to a halt.

“We basically fed that beast as hard as we could and used all that profit to try other things,” said Doug Palladini, North America general manager. “And we ended up sitting on product no one wanted. It was a double-edged sword.”

In 1984, Vans filed for bankruptcy.

Steve remembers when his father had to tell his employees he couldn’t give them a raise for three years. He told everyone to bring pencils from home, because he couldn’t afford to buy pens. The banks wanted him to liquidate, but a judge agreed to let Paul Van Doren bring in a plan every six weeks and make payments.

He paid 100 cents to the dollar on the debt.

Paul and the other partners retired when venture investment firm McCown De Leeuw & Co. offered to buy the company in 1988 for $74 million. The new company took the brand public in 1991.

Through the 90s, Vans continued to grow its following in the skate world and set out to expand into the music scene with what’s now called the Vans Warped Tour. Today, the Warped Tour makes dozens of stops around the country and is known as the place where up-and-coming musicians can be discovered.

By 2004, the company grew to $300 million from $60 million. That same year, the company was sold for $396 million to VF Corp., which assured Vans executives the brand would continue to operate on its own.

Up to that point, Vans had been a California brand. In other surf and skate shops around the country, Vans were found in dusty corners – if the shop held them at all.

The next goal became clear: taking Vans global.

Staying focused

When asked what makes Vans successful, Palladini used one word: Discipline.

The company stopped making shoes that didn’t selland focused on what execs call their four pillars: art, music, action sports and street culture.

“We had so many evolutionary dead ends, it’s phenomenal. Other brands, it would have been their demise,” he said. “Somewhere along the way, we lost focus of who we are. Where we came from is right there, Dogtown” he said, pointing at a poster in his office of skater Stacy Peralta hitting the lip of a pool.

When every action sports wear company decided to jump on active wear or yoga clothes, for example, Vans declined.

One way the company expanded its reach is through collaborations. Vans recently teamed up with Disney and Star Wars. Other Vans partnerships have included the Simpsons and Beatlesbrands.

They’ve kept a stronghold in the surf world by hosting the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing in Hawaii and the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach.

With the backing of VF Corp. Vans has expanded its retail operations, with more than 700 stores worldwide, 20 in Orange County.

While other action-sports brands like Billabong and Quiksilver have grappled with losses, Vans has hit its stride. Their annual financial report released in February shows full-year sales totaled $2.2 billion, a 7 percent increase compared with 2014.

Duke Edukas, co-owner of Surfside Sports in Costa Mesa, remembers thinking Vans was on a roll with its vulcanized shoes, but the trend would only last about five years.

“That was 20 years ago, it never happened,” he said.

In addition to their footwear, snowboard boots sell well at the store. Its clothing line is not as strong, and Edukas does not carry it in his store because not many people ask for it.

“I think it’s important for them to not take their eye off the ball on their footwear,” he said. “They don’t want to lose steam on that, because that’s the strength of the brand.”

Vans obsessions

Even as Vans transformed into a household name around the world, shoe enthusiasts, including Bill Cruz of Glendora, have stuck with the brand.

Cruz is a collector; he owns hundreds of Vans shoes that fill a storage unit. He runs the website stuckunderthepalms.com, which caters strictly to Vans fans.

“My obsession is more like an addiction nowadays,” he said.

As Cruz collected the brand he, like many others, became more passionate about what the brand stood for.

“They are a little bit off the wall, like they say,” he said. “They follow trend, but they represent people who don’t care to fit in. They have deep roots in the skate culture, outsiders, outcasts.”

The appeal of Vans is at an all-time high, especially after the social media meme “Damn Daniel” exploded on the Internet.

Teen Josh Holz took video clips of friend Daniel Lara at a Riverside school and posted it on the Snapchat app, showcasing the teen’s outfits. In one of the clips, Holz is heard saying, “Daaaamn Daniel, back at it again with the white Vans!”

Laylan Connelly started as a journalist in 2002 after earning a degree in journalism from the University of Southern California. Through the years, she has covered several cities for The Orange County Register, starting as a beat reporter in Irvine before focusing on coastal cities such as Newport Beach, Dana Point and Laguna Beach. In 2007, she was selected for a prestigious Knight New Media fellowship focusing on digital media at UC Berkeley, where she learned skills to adapt to the ever-changing online landscape. Using a web-based approach, she turned her love for the ocean into a full-time gig as the paper’s beaches reporter. The unique beat allows her to delve into coastal culture by covering everything from the countless events dotting the 42 miles of coastline, to the business climate of the surf industry, to the fascinating wildlife that shows up on the shores. Most importantly, she takes pride in telling stories of the people who make the beaches so special, whether they are surfers using the ocean to heal, or the founders of major surf brands who helped spawn an entire culture, or people who tirelessly fight to keep the coast pristine and open for all to enjoy. She’s a world traveler who loves to explore the slopes during winter months or exotic surf spots around the globe. When she’s not working, or maybe while she's researching a story, you can find her longboarding at her favorite surf spots at San Onofre or Doheny.